We, the Gentoo PHP team, are going to mask =dev-lang/php-4* and all packages explicitly depending on this version of php around October 18th (i.e. the whole dev-php4/ category (36 packages) and www-apps/knowledgetree, unless there is a php5-compatible version by the time of masking; bug 194894). This step is necessary as there is hardly any upstream activity anymore.

The last official version of php-4 (4.4.7) dates back to May 3rd and is in the same state as php-5.2.2 security-wise (and we all know how many
issues php-5 has had in the past, just have a look at the recently published GLSA 200710-02).

All those security problems, which were fixed in the 5.2 branch, possibly apply to the 4.4 branch as well, yet there are no (backported) fixes in upstream CVS and there is no sign of an upcoming release either.

This means, if we were to continue php-4 support we would have to do the upstream work and compile a list of issues + patches. Upstream developers seem to see it the same way -- "if you really want to get it done - do it" was one reply when I asked what's up with php-4. No one from our PHP team has the time and motivation to do that work, and as such we are going to mask it (unless someone volunteers to do the work and/or upstream becomes active again).

We will still keep php-4 (and all related packages) in the tree until at least the end of the year (this is the date where official upstream "support" ends) and bump it if (and not "when"...) there are any releases.

We advise all users of php-4 to upgrade to php-5 as soon as possible, although it may break really old PHP scripts which rely on php-4 specific behaviour. Please see the upstream documentation (PHP 4 to PHP 5, PHP 5.0 to 5.1, PHP 5.1 to 5.2) for any advice on how to migrate your scripts.

Just a quick reminder: Tomorrow is August 8th, which is the date after which not even severe security issues are going to be fixed by upstream anymore. The PHP team is going to remove all php4-related things (i.e. everything which has already been masked for this reason) from the tree tomorrow. Everything will still be accessible through the newly created php4 overlay at http://overlays.gentoo.org/proj/php/browser (will be accessible using layman).